Honey
Knowledge and awareness about authentic honey purity testing methods among honey consumers are needed ever than before. The reason is, due to the high demand and limited natural honey production, even big commercial brands tend to adulterate honey.
Most of the so-called home testing methods aims to test only the physical nature or density, if these density tests are to be believed then you may end up proving some thick sugar syrup as pure honey.
So, how to identify pure honey? Or how to make sure the honey you are consuming is pure? Practical knowledge and awareness of how honey is adulterated might help in what one must look for honey brands to get pure honey.
How is honey adulterated?
The below mentioned substances will be the reason for honey adulteration. These include-
- Molasses
- Liquid glucose
- Inverted sugar syrup
- High fructose corn syrup
- Rice syrup
- Cane Sugar Syrup (CASS)
- Corn Sugar Syrup (COSS)
Laboratory methods and FSSAI parameters for honey testing in India
- Hydroxy methyl furfural HMF
- Pollen test
- Electrical conductivity test
- Many other tests
Advanced Internationally accepted tests that ensures the purity of honey -
- Liquid chromatography isotopic ratio mass spectrometry
- LC-HRMS test
- Proline quantity
- Trace marker for rice syrup
- Specific marker for rice syrup
- Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
What are the qualities of good honey?
In simple words, we can say that the purer the honey, the better it is. However, this statement alone isn’t enough to prove that a provided jar of honey is good enough. Three qualities that help in judging the honey’s grade in a honey analysis laboratory are:
Water Content: Honey with high water content tends to lose its freshness and ferment. That is why the recommended water content in honey is below 20%.
Colour: This may not be the primary basis to judge the honey’s quality, but dark honey is generally considered to have more minerals and beneficial properties.
Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF): HMF quantity depicts the heating and storage that the honey has gone through. So the product that requires further processing can’t exceed 10-15mg/kg under honey laboratory tests.
Parameters involved in honey testing
- Moisture
- Specific gravity
- HMF
- Colour
- Acidity
- Honey adulteration test
Other chemical tests for honey
- Heavy metals
- Drug residues
- Pesticide residues
- Antibiotics residues
Kindly visit our page for complete information on honey testing.
